If you thought being middle-class meant your own home, something set aside for the kids and a comfortable retirement - think again.

For the first time ever, today's middle classes will struggle to enjoy the same privileges of security and comfort that their grandparents did. How did this situation come about? What can be done about it?

In this beautifully shaped inquiry, David Boyle questions why the middle classes are diminishing and how their status, independence and values are being eroded. From Thatcher's boost of the mortgage market to Blair and Brown's posturing over public services, `Broke' examines the key moments in recent history that created `the squeezed middle'.

Can the middle classes be revived? Should they be? Although they were not innocent in their downfall, Boyle argues that a newly galvanised middle class could be the key to future economic stability. The middle class may be broke, but it is not beyond repair.